Georgia declared its independence from the USSR in 1991 and despite playing friendly matches in 1990 and 1991, the Georgian Football Federation became full members of both FIFA and UEFA in 1992. Their first competitive matches came in qualification for Euro 1996 in which they were in the same qualifying group as Wales.

Wales were trounced 5-0 in Tbilisi despite having players of the calibre of Neville Southall, Barry Horne, Mark Hughes, Dean Saunders and Ian Rush in the side, and further ignomony was to follow in the return match in Cardiff which saw Vinnie Jones receive a red card for a stamp on Mikhail Kavelashvili as Wales slumped to a 0-1 defeat.

Jason Koumas scored Wales' first goal against Georgia in a friendly which saw less than 6,500 at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea in 2008.

Wales had previously played against the USSR in Tblisi in qualifying for the 1982 World Cup.